Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology Condones Rape

The chairman of the Council told journalists that the Council rejected the Protection of Women Act because its provisions are not in line with Islamic injunctions. He said Islam determines procedures to evaluate criminality in cases of rape.

Some hideous rape cases coming to light in Pakistan are prompting questions about the nation's civil liberties. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission report, Motaan, a poor minority woman, age 26 and two months pregnant, was brutally beaten and gang raped in broad daylight by five assailants in the district of Tharparker in Sindh Province on September 4. She, along with her husband, three children and some relatives, were going to work as laborers at a brick kiln. Motaan was grabbed by her hair and was taken inside a community center along with her husband and their three children; the other relatives were able to escape. They were beaten brutally, their their hands and feet tied, then were forced to watch the rape of Motaan.

The Asian Human Rights Commission claimed that the family went to the police station to report the rape and assaults, but a member of Provincial Assembly, Mahesh Kumar Malani, apparently pressured the police and threatened the family, warning them not to press charges.

The next day, a 12-year-old girl in the city Faisalabad and a first-year college student in the town of Toba Tek Singh were also gang raped.

In the conservative society of Pakistan, most rape cases are, when possible, kept secret by the victims' families for the sake of family honor. Nonetheless, in last year, 7,516 cases of violence against women were reported in Pakistan, including 822 rape cases.

The victims, however, are discouraged from to seeking justice by the Pakistani ordinance known as the Hudood Ordinance. The ordinance says that, in the light of Shariah law, four adult Muslim witnesses are required before an alleged rapist can be convicted. Under the Hudood Ordinance, many victims, including young girls such as Zihan Mina, Safia Bibi, and Zafran Bibi, have been sentenced to lashes or death by stoning.

In Sindh, the dominant province of Pakistan, home to 52% of the country's population, a few members of the Provincial Assembly, including Sharmila Farooki, are trying to pass a bill requiring DNA testing in rape cases. Mandatory DNA testing would take place within 12 hours of an individual making a complaint of rape to the authorities. The bill outlines how the DNA evidence can and cannot be used in the courts. It also calls on the provincial government to create forensic laboratories where testing will take place.

It will be tough fight to pass the DNA testing bill. In September, the two-day 192nd Islamic Ideological Conference held in Islamabad was led by Council of Islamic Ideology [CII] in a bid to provide all-encompassing guidance to people in light of the Islamic teachings. Members of the CII emphasized that in rape cases, DNA as primary evidence is not acceptable. Although the CII does not have an official say in the law-making process, it has huge influence over the Pakistani provincial and federal government. It advises the government on religious affairs, and has strong public support.

The chairman of the Council, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, told journalists that the Council rejected the Protection of Women Act of 2006, as its provisions were not in line with Islamic injunctions. He said that Hudood ordinance deals with these offenses, and that Islamic law determines the procedures to determine guilt in cases of rape.

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3 Reader Comments

Peter Heath • Nov 4, 2013 at 18:39

Why does Britain have such a close (too close) relationship with a dysfunctional theocracy that is the antithesis of most of the things Britain stands for? We have almost a 'land border' with this 'country', by which means our already overly large and virtually unassimilable population from Pakistan is continually able to bring in spouses and others to live and vote here as full citizens. This article adequately illustrates the foolhardiness of such a continuing situation, as so many of these coming here clearly subscribe to a belief in Sharia and associated horrors such as honour killings/rapes/FGM/forced marriages. If this were not the case, Pakistan would by now be ridding itself of these abominable practices. When will our political classes respond with some sanity, and curtail migration from Pakistan and similar places, based purely on a consideration of the long-term consequences of not doing so? Islamist extremists (many of them from Pakistan) living here now are vowing to introduce Sharia under their caliphate (see Anjem Choudry); do we really have all of this to look forward to?

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Steven Buckley • Oct 20, 2013 at 19:00

In the non-Muslim world, "human rights" refers to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms that all people -- men and women -- are guaranteed individual rights. By contrast, in the Muslim world, "human rights" are defined according to the Cairo Declaration, which holds that men and women are not equal and that it is the duty of men and women to follow the will of Allah. Dignity is granted only to those who submit to Allah's will. The Cairo Declaration divides all human beings into two separate legal persons within its defined categories, namely men and women, believers and nonbelievers. Any rights or freedoms are binding commandments from Allah as delivered through Mohammed, the Muslim prophet.

So the chairman of the CII says that Islamic law has the say on rape cases does he? Well he would, as the blame for a rape is put firmly onto the victim, not the perpetrator.. hmmmmmm, how convenient. No matter how I try to read some good in the backward ideology that is Islam, it never fails to let me down. Good is bad and bad is good; can there ever be a more evil religion? And I use that word very loosely indeed. Why is DNA testing not acceptable? Is it because the rapist can be absolutely identified? That would never be accepted, as in Islam the woman is always inferior to the man and therefore her suffering is of no consequence at all. Is this the kind of law we want in our countries and are we happy for certain people to practice it in direct conflict to our own laws? Mosques are not just for prayers but are a place where Sharia law is practiced already in many countries.

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